Experts Puzzled By Bright Spot On Venus 107
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of Venus, first identified by US amateur astronomer Frank Melillo on 19 July and later confirmed by the European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft. 'I have seen bright spots before but this one is an exceptionally bright and quite intense area,' says Melillo. The bright spot has started to expand since its first appearance, being spread by winds in Venus' thick atmosphere. Scientists are unsure as to what is causing the spot. 'An eruption would have to be quite energetic to get a cloud this high,' said Dr. Sanjay Limaye of the University of Wisconsin. Furthermore, at a latitude of 50 degrees south, the spot lies outside the region of known volcanoes on Venus. Another potential source for the bright spot are charged particles from the Sun interacting with Venus' atmosphere. It's also possible that atmospheric turbulence may have caused bright material to become concentrated in one area. 'Right now, I think it's anybody's guess,' adds Limaye."
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-1 redundant
not a one time event (Score:5, Informative)
It's not the first bright spot observed on Venus. There was one back in January 2007 where there both hemispheres brightened at the same time.
National Enquirer (Score:1)
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Isn't it obvious? (Score:5, Funny)
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Why the hell was this modded "insightful?" Mods are on crack again...
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Why the hell was this modded "insightful?" Mods are on crack again...
Because the mods read War of the Worlds? Probably between crack puffs.
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Cosmic omens... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know about you guys but I'm expecting the space aliens to show up any minute.
Aliens man? I'm betting on the antichrist. (Score:2)
1. Mysterious bright spot on Venus
2. Scar on Jupiter http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/25/1457245/Hubble-Photographs-Jupiters-New-Scar?art_pos=2/ [slashdot.org] [slashdot.org]
3. Unexplained high tides http://www.newsobserver.com/news/health_science/story/1620869.html/ [newsobserver.com] [newsobserver.com]
I don't know about you guys but I'm expecting the space aliens to show up any minute.
Dude, I'm going straight to the Book of Revelations, the end of the world. Space a
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Hopefully our world isn't the world of Angel Sanctuary.
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That's scary, but if you want genuine terror, there's nothing to top God coming back
Nah, I'll just tell Him He just proved He exists and He'll vanish in a puff of logic.
Wait, what do you mean, "coming back"?
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That's scary, but if you want genuine terror, there's nothing to top God coming back to smite all the evil and villainy, especially if you happen to be an evil villain.
I believe you overlooked SCIENCE. Nothing to stop him coming back eh, you crazy believers... nothing... heh... oh my...
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I believe you overlooked SCIENCE. Nothing to stop him coming back eh, you crazy believers... nothing... heh... oh my..
Ah, science is downright depressing in terms of moral retribution. Because there's no post-death penalty, if you kill more than one person, you always sorta come out with a higher score. In religion, there's a possibility of a wrathful God who will put your nutsack in a blender for 2 billion years for your crimes. By contrast, if you manned up with the love vest and blew yourself up in a
Re:Cosmic omens... (Score:5, Funny)
The most disturbing thing of all is that if the aliens did show up, the first thing many Slashdotters would do is come back to your comment and change the moderation so it appears as "Insightful".
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Nah, it's just part of the viral marketing for District 9. Tristar have been buying up ex-solviet nuclear-tipped ICBMs and retrofitting them for a space mission. The rest of the spots will spell out "buy coke" (they gotta have a product placement as well, right?)
Asteroids, metoers? (Score:3, Interesting)
The dark spot on Jupiter is almost certainly a comet, asteroid or meteor. While I doubt that the higher tides on the US coast have anything to do with it, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the bright spot on Venus wasn't also due to an asteroidal collision. Venus has a very thick atmosphere and a large collision would probably leave a mark in the atmosphere due to kicked up dust etc that would be observable for a while until it dissipated in the atmosphere.
More importantly, the odds of two planets in the sy
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and that makes me worry if there isn't some local debris cloud from the Oort cloud or Kuiper belt that is passing through the system currently. Does anyone know?
No, but such an event would be huge news and I'm sure we'd know about it by now. The people who insist that extinction events occur regularly due to some astronomical cycle would be screaming their heads off insisting that Sol's companion star has returned to pelt the earth with comets.
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Astronomy Feed [feeddistiller.com] @ Feed Distiiler [feeddistiller.com]
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Venus is already pretty well developed. She is the Goddess of Love after all, fer Pete's sake.
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Jupiter and Venus,
In a Tree!
K I S S
I N G!
Yes, now they BOTH have cold sores.
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Jupiter was merely hit by an asteroid.
Venus, however, is practicing shooting down satellites & space ships. Given their atmosphere, however, the ground-based laser lights up the clouds, and is visible from adjacent planets . . .
hawk
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Global warming? (Score:2, Funny)
Random Venusian Fact (Score:5, Informative)
Random Fact: The proper adjective form to refer to the 2nd solar planet is not Venusian but Venereal. However, the latter term doesn't get quite the desired reception from the general public.
(I learned this from a Tony Randall appearance on the tonight show in the early 1980s. I just wish my brain could retain practical facts the way it retains trivia like this.)
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Re:Random Venusian Fact (Score:5, Informative)
Not according to these:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/venereal [reference.com]
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/venereal [merriam-webster.com]
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/venereal [askoxford.com]
If it is, it must be a very obscure reference. I doubt you'd be able to use it and convey the meaning you claimed.
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I did, but did you even understand what you read and wrote?
As you said it was a term used for STDs since the 1600s. It was most certainly not a term used for the meaning the OP claimed. To quote the OP: "The proper adjective form to refer to the 2nd solar planet is not Venusian".
So even in the 1600s when you're actually referring to things of the _actual_ planet
Correction (Score:1)
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Sexist? Amazing how a couple of generations of brainwashing can undo centuries of progress and accomplishment.
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What the hell kind of brainwashing are you talking about?
Scientist 1: I believe we have a winner!
Scientist 2: Yup, no recollection of the brain washing at all.
Business Manager: Right, you two bust out the bubbly while I get that patent form filled in!
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Not since the 1890's has "venereal" been preferred over "Venusian". As it were.
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Random Fact: The proper adjective form to refer to the 2nd solar planet is not Venusian but Venereal.
Nope. It's "cytherean". Of course, you could believe Tony Randall over someone who has worked on PVO (Pioneer Venus Orbiter) data. I admit that it's probably more fun that way.
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Not really. Venereal IS the proper pluralization of Venus.
Cytherean is something cooked-up, pretty much at random, because so many people simply refused to use the proper terminology. And point of fact, isn't even the observed terminology these days, as it was some years ago.
In other news, I don't like the word "dog". They're now to be called untigs. Anyone that doesn't observe this new proper wording is stupid and wrong...
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Both of those terms are odd choices for a reference to Perelandra . . .
hawk
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Alien DARPA (Score:3, Funny)
Looks like a test of the Venetian DARPA to me. We can expect our Venetian Overlords to arrive soon!
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That'd be HAARP, not DARPA.
Worse, it might be their LHC.
Just like Jupiter (Score:4, Interesting)
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It looks like it, but if you want to become a successful guesser you need to take into account the prior probability, which in this case is tiny. So, no.
To make a parallel, a dead rat on the street in NYC may look like it was crushed by an elephant, but that wouldn't be my guess.
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I would expect a comet/meteor strike to look dark and more like a spot, while this is very light and looks like a stripe. (VMC)
There is spacecraft in orbit around Venus. (Score:4, Interesting)
ESA Venus Express is in orbit around Venus. Perhaps they can shed more light on this.
Re:There is spacecraft in orbit around Venus. (Score:5, Funny)
Baffled scientists. (Score:1)
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Alien Craft Dumped Its Bilge (Score:2)
H.G. Wells already warned us about this. (Score:2)
It's the forge casting the giant gun they're going to use to shoot the spaceship at us.
Good thing we've got these handy microbes around. Martians weren't clued enough to wear space suits. Let's hope the Venusians are equally dumb.
Oh My God... (Score:1)
V-spot (Score:1)
It's igniting (Score:3, Funny)
We get a second sun.
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We get a second sun.
Yay!
Oh, wait. That's bad, isn't it?
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That's bad, isn't it?
Describe "bad".
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Noctilucent Clouds Spread and Mystify (Score:2)
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/19/1920203/Noctilucent-Clouds-Spread-and-Mystify [slashdot.org]
Men are from Mars... (Score:1)
But does it match.... (Score:1, Redundant)
the dark spot on Uranus?
Just asking....
Verne lives on Venus (Score:1)
Obviously It's the flash from the cannon that sent their projectile to Jupiter, good thing it wasn't earth since they say the projectile made quite a splash on Jupiter.
Check your Jules Verne notes for the historical reference.
Well... (Score:1)
> Scientists are unsure as to what is causing the spot:
>
> - An eruption
> - charged particles from the Sun
> - atmospheric turbulence
>
> 'Right now, I think it's anybody's guess,' adds Limaye.
Ignited farts from giant dinosaurs?
Not another! (Score:1)
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It could be a symptom of a Venereal disease. You should have that looked at.
Thank you. Thank you. Try the veal.